Thu 14 Apr – Roadburn Festival 2011

Thursday

Thing is, there was something for everyone…and too much for anyone.

I started on a high with Year Of No Light. Some regrets about missing The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, but you pays your money and makes your choices, and YONL were transcendent.

Also regret missing Zoroaster, but no chance of getting into the Bat Cave and it was a toss up anyway with Acid King. Tails I lost.

Plan was Naam next, but backache rooted me to the Main Stage and a nice surprise in the shape of Wovenhand. Came across as…

Recordings of the Bristol and Brighton gigs on the Kollaps Tradixionales tour can be downloaded from the Live Music Archive in V0 and flac:

Bristol

Brighton

320kbps mp3s of the individual songs can also be downloaded at Sound Cloud.

Sun 17 May – Pit Er Pat, The Momeraths

Bristol, this was a missed opportunity to see a great up & coming band…for nothing! Barely 20 people, and only a handful of them were attentive. Surprisingly the set didn't include any songs from the excellent 'High Time' album, and their style was different to what I'd expected, which bodes well for the next album. A 120 mile round trip from S. Wales and £5.40 for the bridge was more than repaid. Nice venue too.

Wed 29 Oct – WOTGODFORGOT PRESENTS JACKIE O MOTHERFUCKER

We were there more for Valet & Gnod than Jackie-O Motherfucker, who I'd struggled to get into before. This sold them to me big time. Valet kicked off a gorgeously transcendant performance with an extended song from the excellent Naked Acid. I could've listened to her for much longer but also loved her contribution to the full band's set. I'll have another listen to Jackie-O Motherfucker's recorded stuff but as a live band they're right up there with the best I've seen. Looking forward to the next time.

Gnod were…

Sat 19 Jul – Butthole Surfers, Paul Green's School of Rock

Maybe I've seen too many excellent bands lately, e.g. Oxbow and Battles at Supersonic last week, and The Fall and Wire, both in Academy 2. This was a major disappointment and I left after 5 or 6 numbers when it became clear that BS are nowhere near as subtle and humerous as they are on record, and that they were going to keep bringing on the frankly unimpressive School of Rock kids to play with them. Loads of people at the front were clearly having a good time, and…

Wed 21 May – The Black Angels, Sian Alice Group

These were the (approx) 29th & 30th bands we'd seen in 6 days. At ATP curated by Explosion in the Sky we enjoyed the likes of Battles (x2), Animal Collective, Broken Social Scene, Dinosaur Jr (x2) and the night before had seen A Place to Bury Strangers. The Black Angels and Sian Alice Group were at least as good as any of those and maybe better.

Sian Alice Group are a rising force with the potential for greatness. For some reason my brain formed a neural link to Portishead. Their…

Sat 3 May – Futuresonic Festival

Wire were on fire. Loved every minute and all 3 encores. 23 Years Too Late would've topped it off, but maybe another time. Bring on the new album…

The Chap were brilliant too. Great music, great fun, definitely want lots more of this band.

I've tried to like the Dirty Projectors but don't. Just not my thing.

Only caught the last 10 mins of Skeletons & the Kings of All Cities but liked what I heard.

All in all, a blast.